Copyright 2000 The Houston Chronicle Publishing Company
The Houston Chronicle
May 29, 2000, Monday 2 STAR EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 749 words
HEADLINE:
Business briefs
SOURCE: Bloomberg News, Reuters,
Associated Press, Staff
BODY:
McConnell suggests
delay on China trade
WASHINGTON - Senate Republican leaders should
consider delaying a China trade bill until President Clinton and Congress have
reached agreement on spending legislation, a top Republican senator said Sunday.
"My personal view is I would give PNTR (permanent
normal trade relations) to the president right after he signed the last
appropriations bill, or it could just be the first accomplishment of the next
administration," said Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Clinton has
threatened to veto a number of the 13 annual government spending bills because
of disagreements with Republicans over funding priorities.
At the same
time, Clinton has made Congressional approval of PNTR for China
one of his top priorities for the last year of his presidency. Last week, the
House approved PNTR 237-197 after a hard-fought battle on both
sides.
In an interview on CNN's Late Edition, McConnell said Republicans
should consider holding up the China trade bill to get what they want in the
appropriation bills.
Sen. Patrick Moynihan, New York Democrat, gasped at
the suggestion Senate Republicans might delay passage of PNTR
until the next president takes office in 2001.
"Oh, golly. Oh, Mitch,
no!," said Moynihan, who has been a leading advocate for PNTR.
"We're all ready in the Senate."
Mexico: Within decade will lead in U.S
trade
CUERNAVACA, Mexico - Mexico expects to eclipse Canada as the
United States' biggest trading partner within the next decade, a top government
trade official said.
Mexico's Trade Undersecretary Luis de la Calle said
that his nation, which is part of the 6-year-old North American Free Trade
Agreement with the United States and Canada, will catch up to Canada's level in
six or seven years.
"Mexico is going to surpass Canada in coming years,"
said de la Calle, who spoke Saturday at a conference in Cuernavaca.
Last
year, two-way Mexico-U.S. trade was $ 196.6 billion, edging out Japan-U.S.
bilateral trade of $ 188.9 billion but behind Canadian-U.S. trade of $ 364.6
billion, according to U.S. Commerce Department figures.
Central bank
leaders at Paris conference
PARIS - French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin
opened an international monetary conference Sunday reiterating his confidence in
the euro, saying the currency has "definitively" created a new business
environment for Europe.
The conference, which closes Wednesday, brings
together the heads of the world's main central banks, including U.S. Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, European Central Bank chief Wim Duisenberg, the
heads of Germany's Bundesbank and the Bank of Japan and Bank of France Governor
Jean-Claude Trichet.
In an opening address, France's Socialist prime
minister vaunted his government's performance in creating what he said was a
dynamic economy and business environment in France and stressed commitment to
the euro despite its weak performance.
German post office to offer
e-mail service
BERLIN - Looking for ways to keep from losing its
business to cyberspace, the German postal system is planning to offer e-mail
services to customers with and without Internet access.
In an interview
published in Sunday's Bild am Sonntag newspaper, Deutsche Post chairman Klaus
Zumwinkel said they would begin offering free e-mail addresses to private
customers by the end of June.
Deutsche Post - which is planning an
initial stock offering in November - intends to build up an e-mail center where
messages can be accessed via any Internet provider, he said.
"We want to
bind private customers to us, even in this electronic age," he said.
Starting next month, the post office also plans to offer a service
allowing e-mails to be printed out and delivered with the next day's regular
mail. "They send us e-mails that we deliver as letters, such as when the
recipient doesn't have Internet access," he said.
Volkswagen sales off;
marketing head leaving
HAMBURG, Germany - Volkswagen AG's head of global
marketing and sales, Han-Ulrich Sachs, will leave the company on June 30, after
Volkswagen-brand sales declined 9.8 percent in the first four months of the
year.
Detlef Wittig, the deputy chief executive of Volkswagen's Skoda
unit, will replace Sachs, who has held the position for just over a year.
Wittig's position at Skoda will be filled by Detlef Schmidt, currently the Seat
board member in charge of sales, and Lars-Henner Santelmann, the head of VW
sales in southeast Europe, replaces Schmidt at Seat.
NOTES: Bloomberg News, Reuters, the Associated
Press and Chronicle staff contribute to this report.
LOAD-DATE: May 30, 2000 
